Bye-bye dub...

Bye-bye rain's caress, Hello happiness, I think I'm gonna smile! So I may have changed the words a bit, but considering the circumstances I think it's appropriate! So Chris and my time in Dublin came and went. It was a flurry of stressful packing and last minute this and that, but we made all our flights and have been spending that last two lovely days in Cape Town, in the height of summer! WOOHOO! Summer, sun, warmth, ocean beaches! It's magnificent! So far...well, do you have a minute? It's only been two days and we've done so much! We opted for the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour (red line) to take us up to Table Mountain in a cable car. The drive through the city was really great (we were sitting on the top, getting sunburned even though we applied sunscreen like 6 times), the wind blowing through our hair! Great views only to find out that the cable car was having technical difficulties, so we hopped right back on and had a lovely lunch at the Bungalow restaurant right on the beach at Camp's Bay. Mussels, Ostrich medallions, lovely salads and LOTS of water! After, we strolled for quite some time on the beach, only getting our feet wet. The water was so cold it was literally painful. Now we have both in the Pacific Ocean, which can hold it's own when it comes to being cold, but this water...you know how if you put your feet in really cold water it takes your breath away right away, but then your feet just sort of go numb and it becomes bearable? Well, they just wouldn't go numb...they just kept being painful. Chris described it perfectly as being a dull ache of cold straight through to the bone, over and over again (because we kept stepping in and back out).

We finished yesterday with a trip to the grocery store (the Pick-n-Pay). It was hard to do the conversions in my head on whether or not 64rand was too much to pay for fresh blueberries. Turns out it was not. Even if the conversion says it is, they are the most delicious blueberries I've ever tasted. All the produce is from South Africa. They are a self-sustaining country for the most part. And, yes, we went to the grocery store on the first day! Of course we did, have you ever met me?

That brings us to today. We booked a full day Peninsula tour last minute for today and were picked up right on time. There were 11 of us total. We saw many beaches, got a lot of history (our tour guide was great), and had many stops that were perfectly planned. We took a boat ride out to Seal Island from Hout Bay and saw thousands of seals sun bathing and playing with each other...it was very cool, though didn't smell great. We made it to an Ostrich Farm where I purchased Ostrich jerky (or biltong as they call is here). I'm saving it for our climb up Kili, but am excited to try it. Chris' first stop was to reception to pick up a bag of feed. We fed two adults (one male, one female) and got some great pictures! The baby ostrich were so cute and playful. We couldn't feed them though.

Next stop, Cape Point, where Chris and I took too long having lunch and didn't make it to the lighthouse, but got our pictures next to the sign anyway. That didn't matter though b/c we got to the Cape of Good Hope (the south-western most part of Africa) and got a picture of us toasting. It was suppose to be us toasting with our nalgenes, but I forgot to grab mine so it's his nalgene and my plastic water bottle. Very classy!

We finished up the tour with a stop to the Penguin Colony in Simons Town (which we will absolutely be returning to later this week) and the Kirsenbosch Botanical Gardens. We were ready to head back to the hotel, but had a grand day. We are both having a grand time and are glad we are spending so much time in Cape Town. On our list of things to do the rest of our time here: Cooking classes (of course), diving (of course), tour of the winelands, Table Mountain, the aquarium, Penguin Colony, the beach and who know what else...isn't that enough?

As for pictures...we will do our best to get some up, but it likely won't happen with any sort of consistency until we are in Europe, as the web cafe (though conveniently located) is a bit pricey for taking as long as it does to upload anything. So for now, the stories are what you get...this is your exercise in using your imaginations. I hope the pictures live up to your imaginations!